Linda Carman

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Classic Italian Panzanella with a Southern Twist for Fall

The traditional Panzanella is a Tuscan salad created as a use for leftover ingredients that were too good to throw away. You don’t have to be Italian to enjoy this salad. If you have stale bread, too chewy and hard to eat, why not add it to a salad and let the bread absorb the dressing to soften it? Panzanella recipes vary in the direction for preparation – some recipes call for soaking the bread in water before adding it to the salad. Panzanella is often made with chopped summer vegetables, basil and onion. Variations on the traditional Panzanella abound, but the common ingredient always seems to be the addition of bread.

Reinterpreted as a fall salad, the Martha White®Harvest Apple Cornbread Panzanella recipe is hearty enough to be supper. The basic salad is made with seasonal ingredients like baby kale and apples combined with red onion and cheddar cheese. Chunks of browned apple-chicken sausage links elevate the salad to the main dish category.

To top it off, the salad gets a southern twist by using cornbread instead of Italian bread. The cornbread is made with Martha White® Sweet Yellow Cornbread Mix, accented with sage and chopped pecans. The cooled cornbread is cut into cubes and gently tossed into the salad with a vinaigrette dressing.

This southern take on the classic Panzanella may be a world away from the original Italian version, but we are certainly grateful for the inspiration.